I can't recommend enough the value of a PID, mine keeps the temperature pretty consistent when steaming. When adding the air you just want to hear that tsk tsk sound. Im sure youve read or heard all this a millions times already though.

Pressure is interesting in that most try for about 9 bar dynamic and that may be about 10 static, even 10.5. You have a plumbed in gauge and can see pressure while brewing as opposed to a gauge and a bleed valve on the PF to test static and dynamic intermittently. I would not obsess over pressure if about 9 bar. Some have tried pressure profiling with a dimmer on Gaggia and seen good results with lower pressure on various coffees. Part of the fun with your setup is to try say 8.5 to 9.5 dynamic and see if you taste a difference.

You mentioned 55 ml in 25 seconds. What is the weight, or what is the volume if you let the crema dissipate? You might try some variation with 30 to 40 gms, perhaps even 25 gms in 25 seconds.

You mentioned steaming. After I switched to Rancilio wand I read these

You can help temperature determination with a digital thermometer removed from the metal sheath and bead on the boiler to see where you are for brew and steam. I found that steam was much better using PID alarm as a second (third) function of the controller with a much narrower deadband than the bimetal stat. You can do similar manually if you can determine the temperature and keep the steam stat from clicking off.

In the first pages of the link below AndyPanda talks about the digital thermometer and how to use it.

So I am finally learning that if beans give you hassles and don't pull anything but a brown runny liquid (even at one's normal grind setting) then you TIGHTEN that grind up a whack and pull ristretto's :) It makes for a much nicer cup!

I am also learning not to worry about extraction time or volume, and just go by color.

Here's a picture of the Gaggia with the pressure gauge installed and the picture of the OPV.The only place I could mount it was on the lid. Yip this did make life far more interesting that I'd generally like it to be!The Rancillio wand was installed after this.

There's now a neat hole underneath the water fill lid, that I can use to access the OPV with a screwdriver during a shot if I need to adjust the pressure as I go. No more opening it up just to adjust it blind.

Handy hint for those with Gaggias: If your pump is squeelling, whining and doing stupid things.. Run a flush first to get rid of air bubbles in the boiler. It solved my problem.

I can't quite tell from the picture, what OPV and where in the line. It does not look like Gaggia in the normal Gaggia position at boiler entry, you noted "from Brewtus." Other Gaggia owners are occasionally looking for another OPV and place to install, and connections. How about a bit more info?

I basically plumbed it between the pump outlet, and the boiler inlet. Using a T-piece I also connected in the pressure gauge.The outlet of the OPV goes back into the tank.

The tricky part about getting it to fit into a Carezza body, is that you have to turn the pump around and face it the other way. Using an 90° bend to the left from the pump, I connected the OPV with the adj screw facing upwards, and drilled a hole directly above it (under the lid) for a screwdriver.

Because it's so cramped in there, I then ran a pipe from the OPV past the boiler again, and connected the T-piece + gauge + existing short pipe back into the boiler.

I'll try take a photo this week, of what it looks like, but I doubt you'll be able to make out much with everything in there.

It's really very strange. By such a big difference, 60-140%, how can people know what it is?Can weighing be easier than volume? Isn't it a too much difficult way to do it? In fact, people have not found a proper way to do it, and do volume for almost a hundred years.At last, we need to know how to judge the quality, in stead of the definition.

Peter in Beijing-------------------http://www.kaffa.cn/-------------------I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.

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